French Old Palme d’Or Winner “The Red Balloon” Back to Cannes

The French movie “The Red Balloon” won the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film in Cannes about 50 years ago. After such a long period Albert Lamorisse’s 34-minute children’s classic short film will be watched again during this year’s festival from Cannes.
The restored copy of the 1956 movie will be watched on Saturday. “The Red Balloon” is the story of a little boy who will befriend a red balloon, which in fact has its own life. The action takes place on the streets of Paris.
The Saturday screening of the classic movie will be part of the Director’s Fortnight sidebar. The little boy from the movie, the director’s son, Pascal Lamorisse, he himself will appear to promote the picture, which actually also had won an Oscar for Best Screenplay.
Pascal Lamorisse was 5 years old at the time of the shoot. “I didn’t have a very normal childhood. People recognized me and just wanted to talk about the film.” – said Pascal Lamorisse, who is now in his sixties.
Pascal Lamorisse has been working as a technician on films and he has also directed a yet unreleased movie. He has also managed the rights to his father’s films, as Lamorisse died back in 1970 in a helicopter accident, while he was shooting a film in Iran.
“The Red Balloon’s” restoration has been made along with its companion item, “White Mane”, another movie made by Albert Lamorisse. “White Mane” is a black-and-white short film from 1952 about another little boy and a wild horse. More than $200,000 has been spent for the restoration of the two films.
Films Distribution co-chief Nicolas Brigaud-Robert said: “It is a perfect double bill. The two together make up the length of a feature, and the sad tone of the first film is countered by the optimistic note in the second.” As Films Distribution will be insisting on a theatrical release as part of its sales strategy in Cannes, Brigaud-Robert also said: “The age of the films doesn’t change what they are. When you see a Disney film from the 1950s, you don’t dismiss it as just an old film.”
“The Red Balloon” has marked many other newer movies and directors through time. Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s movie entitled “Flight of the Red Balloon”, starring Juliette Binoche, which will open Cannes sidebar Un Certain Regard, is an example.

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